The Everyday Mystic

The Anxiety Antidote: How to Stop Fighting Your Nervous System w/ David Procyshyn

• Corissa Saint Laurent • Episode 122

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To the millions of people who use his platform, Do Yoga With Me, David Procyshyn is a calm, grounded guide. But for decades, he lived with debilitating chronic anxiety; a constant, humming tension that he tried to escape through travel, extreme meditation retreats, and sheer force of will.

In this episode, David joins Corissa to discuss the epidemic of high-functioning anxiety and the path to true nervous system regulation. He shares the story of his solo journey to South Africa at age 22, where he discovered that you can change your geography, but you can't outrun your mind. He also recounts his experience in 10-day silent retreats, meditating 11 hours a day to learn the simple, terrifying art of sitting with discomfort.

Corissa and David dive into practical tools for the busy professional. They discuss why rapid breathing might be more effective than meditation for the anxious mind, and how doing nothing can reset your baseline stress levels.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The Thinking Trap: How successful people mask chronic anxiety with busyness, and the physical toll of living in a state of constant overthinking.
  • The Silent Retreat Experience: What happens when you remove all distractions for 10 days, and why boredom is actually a gateway to healing.
  • Rapid Breathing vs. Meditation: Why traditional meditation fails for many anxious people, and how rapid breathing (pranayama) acts as a physiological shortcut to presence.
  • The Do Nothing Challenge: A simple yet excruciating exercise: sitting still for 10 minutes without meditating, reading, or planning.
  • Befriending the Anxiety: Shifting from "How do I get rid of this?" to "Why are you here, and what do you need?"

Notable Quotes:

  • "I asked my anxiety why it was there... It sounds ridiculously simple, but I had never done it." — David Procyshyn
  • "The things that we're most resistant to are the things that are most powerfully potent for us." — David Procyshyn
  • "Just by observing their breath, the quality of their breath got better." — David Procyshyn

Resources & Links:

  • Connect with David: https://davidprocyshyn.com/
  • Do Yoga With Me: https://www.doyogawithme.com/

Connect with Corissa:

If this conversation awoke or inspired something in you, please consider leaving us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to help us reach more people.

Thanks for tuning in!

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Hey, beautiful souls. Join me in welcoming my guest, David Procision. He's the founder of Do Yoga With Me. That's how I originally met him. Both of us were at the Yoga Expo in Los Angeles. But since then, I've learned about his ongoing work in the space of anxiety. He uses both yoga and meditation to help people heal their anxiety through all of the incredible gifts that come through yoga and meditation. So the stillness work, the mindfulness work, movement and breath work, and his simple approaches, as well as his own personal experience, create a really beautiful, gentle teacher and approach in him, which you'll hear and experience in the conversation that you're about to listen to. So sit back and enjoy this discussion about breaking free from chronic anxiety and living a life that is spirit-led and taking all paths available back home to yourself. You're listening to the Everyday Mystic, where we share advice and stories grounded in the practical and supercharged by the spiritual.

David Procyshyn:

Hi, Krista.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

It's really wonderful to have you here after having met you in person. I don't often get to meet my guests actually in person. Some of them are friends of mine. So of course I know them and have spent time with them in person. But I would say the vast majority of my guests are people I've never met in real life and got to spend that kind of time with. So we're kind of doing the reverse of where we got to meet in person. And now here you are. Thank you so much for coming on to the show.

David Procyshyn:

Oh, I'm really excited. Thanks for inviting me on.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Your last name is interesting, and I'm so glad I asked you how to pronounce it. What's the origin?

David Procyshyn:

It's Ukrainian.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Are you far removed from Ukraine as far as your life? When did you come to the States or when did your family come here? Or you're not in the States. Sorry, you're in Canada.

David Procyshyn:

I'm in Canada. My uh, so my version of grandma, which is Baba, and my version of Grandpa, which is Dida. So my Baba and Zita, um who are my dad's parents, they came with their family to Canada. Oh, I don't even know what year it was. It was in the early 1900s. So my connection to them, I don't really have a strong cultural connection outside of the experience of our family coming together because they had a they had a lot of kids and then they had a lot of kids. So I had a lot of cousins, and we would get together for Christmas and Easter, Ukrainian Christmas and Ukrainian Easter, and have these grand Ukrainian feasts, which were which were fantastic and very memorable. I have a lot of memories, like visual memories of that time in my life. But my dad didn't really think we didn't learn Ukrainian or we didn't learn a lot about the culture. We just had that family experience.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Yeah, it's kind of a almost a blight of our generation. Any of us that moved here or were moved here to the Americas, it's like those countries of origin, cultures of origin, were stripped away. I I was adopted, so my family that I was raised with were American, but my father was French-Canadian and his parents were from Quebec and they spoke French at home, but they didn't teach it to him, or they didn't make him speak French. So, of course, you know, among all of his American friends growing up in, you know, the 50s and 60s in the United States, just it all went away. And then I come to them and my mom and dad, and my Korean was all lost because they don't speak Korean and they don't know anything about Korea. So all of that was lost. And what they were told when I was adopted, and that was in the 70s, was to just integrate her. Just, you know, give her, you know, her American name, speak to her in English, all the just make her American. And that's how she's going to do best here. You could look at that in a couple of different ways, of course. I mean, I feel like I have benefited from that for sure. But you think about what's lost in those cultural connections, whether it's the language or the food or the customs or just even memories, knowledge of heritage. It's interesting that a lot of families just kind of want to erase that. And like, nope, you're Canadian now. You're American now.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah, I I I feel like I'm missing something. Like when I it took until my 40s and 50s to make me feel like I missed an opportunity. Like I never sat down with my Baba and Jeet and asked them about what their life was like when they arrived in Canada. Because that, like, I so deeply want that right now. I want to be able to sit with them and talk to them about that because their lives were so, so different. And also, like, just memories of what they brought, the memories and the cultural items that they arrived with and the belief systems, all of that. Like, I really, I really think I missed something. But you can't go back in time and live with regret. So you gotta move on.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Are you researching or doing any of your own investigation of your Ukrainian heritage? Like, have you gone there and visited it all?

David Procyshyn:

I have not gone there.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Yeah.

David Procyshyn:

But I have conversations occasionally with my dad. When questions come up, I'll ask him.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

That's great. Well, at least you've got somebody who's still connected in that way. And I went back to Korea actually for my honeymoon. My husband and I went there into Japan and got to experience it because I was three years old when I left, but young enough that I don't remember anything. So going there felt like being there for the first time. And it was incredible to experience that country and things that I don't feel culturally connected to, but learning about it and feeling an affinity to it. Like the first time I ever had Korean food, and this was way before I visited Korea. This was when I, you know, lived in San Francisco and we had the benefit of those kinds of restaurants around. And I just took to it immediately. So it's like even though we don't have memories of a place, ourselves or our spirits think can carry those memories very strongly. And then there's the whole thing of past lives, if you believe in that, and where we may have lived before in past lives. And some people have such strong affinities to a past life that they may, you know, not feel comfortable in their country of origin. And but as soon as they go to Ukraine or they go to Bolivia or somewhere, they're like, I'm home and feel that so deeply. So I think that's interesting about us as human beings, is that we're raised in certain places and with certain customs, language, food, etc. And our spirits can call us to other places.

David Procyshyn:

Oh, yeah. And I have a bit of a self-analytical brain. And when I think about going to Ukraine or when I meet people who are from Ukraine, I automatically feel warmth. It's like in my heart. And I don't, when I talk about being self-analytical, I wonder automatically if that's because I think I should feel that way or because it's in my DNA. Like I don't, I don't, you know, nature nurture, I don't really know exactly what is happening, but um yeah, it does certainly feel like there's a deeper, more um ancient connection to the culture of Ukraine. And then on my mom's side, it would be Norway. And I've I've wanted definitely wanted to go to both places.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

We were talking before we hit record about travel and about what my family's about to go do, which is to essentially travel, um, live. It's I don't know what to call it. I mean, most people call it being nomadic. I don't know if I would classify it as that. I guess it's just going and living in places. And then when we're done living there, we're gonna go live in another place. I guess you could call that nomadic, as it would compare to being sedentary. Um, but neither of those things to me seem accurate to how I've lived. I've I've always traveled and always lived in different places. So now we're just gonna go and live in a different place for a while. We were talking about that before we hit record and how the move like this for maybe someone like you and I is exhilarating because we want to go explore culture and we feel drawn to places and we're following this spiritual calling potentially. Um, but we also have kids. And my son, who's 13, is struggling with this a bit of us leaving here and going off on this adventure. It's an adventure that we don't know where it's gonna lead to, just like life. No one knows where life is gonna lead, even when you do just stay in one place. So we're just kind of being more deliberate with how we're gonna go live that life. But you brought up to me the fact that, you know, you've got teenage kids as well, and that they would feel extremely uprooted by something like this. And my son, I think, is experiencing what may be termed or may even be looked at as anxiety around this move, around what does this mean? I'm never gonna see these people again, never gonna talk to these people again, never have any connection to these people or this place. And it's starting to manifest as that in him. And I know that's a lot of the work that you do. Yes, you're the founder of Do Yoga with me, but you're also uh deeply working in this space, helping people with anxiety. Is that something that you see with clients that kind of changes in their day-to-day or their environments or things like this can be challenging and be something that would trigger anxiety? And then, and if so, how how do you manage that with or help your clients manage that?

David Procyshyn:

Yeah, uncertainty is a hard thing to deal with when you're living with chronic anxiety. Like I started teaching yoga about 20, 25 years ago, and I just um naturally started to draw people in who wanted a little bit more of a deeper inner experience because they were struggling. And a lot of the people just happened to be people living with high levels of chronic anxiety, but were very functional in life. You know, they had a job, they had families, they had kids, they had dependents, they had a lot that they had to do in an average day, but they were just they were just managing that anxiety. And so mentally, emotionally, physically, they were tense, they were exhausted, they were they had a constant daily sense of heaviness and overthinking everything and racing mind and and difficulties sleeping, and this deep desire to keep it all together, and also self-judgment, that they weren't like they weren't the people that they thought they should be to their colleagues, to their family, and they would arrive in bed at night feeling like dead tired, and they would wake up not rested, and they would have to do it over again. So that this cycle of chronic anxiety is um debilitating for some, and you just a lot of people just keep the turmoil on the inside like I did for 30 years, and you try to look happy on the outside. Now you talk about travel. Yeah, I don't I never work with kids just because I think kids are it's better to work with kids one-on-one. You really need a a connection with a child. Uh change is a little bit slower, and the connection is different with a child. But I I told you the story of going to Southern Africa when I was 22. And I did that as a solo journey. And the main reason was because I just feel like I needed a a drastic change in my life because I had debilitating depression and anxiety, and I have found it hard to get out in the morning, and I needed a drastic change from my current living situation. So when you describe a disruption to your daily life, a disconnection from like what I think of for my children would be it would be disruptive. It would, it would obviously you'd sever the social connections, or not sever, but you would make it hard because you you're not with them physically anymore. And I would think that you would need a really strong emotional connection with your parents in order to feel safe in doing that. So that is what happened for me when I left. I felt a complete cut from my day-to-day existence. And because there was no internet back then, there was no connection. Like I would sometimes phone, but mostly it was by writing letters and I would mail the letter and they would receive it two to three weeks later. You know, and then a month and a half later, I'd get a letter back from them. Right. So, um, but when I came back, I was a completely different person. Like everything I owned was in my backpack. And so you just take what you've got with you, and that experience alone is amazing. It's so amazing to do that. And then also you are constantly open to your momentum of experience, to opportunities, to, you know, you're even kind of aware of the dangers that you know, because everything is more uncertain. And so I just found myself living in the moment. I found myself being fascinated by every day. And also I was having these completely new cultural experiences that were just breaking me open. My heart was getting broken open. My understanding of life and culture and the possibilities of who I could be and what kind of life I could live were just radically changed through that experience.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

It's so beautiful. And through it, you saying you came back a new version of you, or as someone who may not have even been able to relate to that old version of you, did the experience itself lessen the anxiety, the depression, and that debilitating feeling? Did you come back and it all kind of flooded back in when you were in a familiar environment again? How did you navigate that when you returned?

David Procyshyn:

Well, to be able to describe that, I need to describe the actual experience of leaving because my first reality is was that I felt desperately alone. When you leave solo to a country where you don't know anybody and the culture is not familiar to you, like I felt by myself. And so, in a way, I kind of relate this to I've done a few meditation retreats that were silent and we were meditating 11 hours a day, and we weren't allowed to do anything but meditate. And both of them make you face the feelings on the inside. Like it it made me feel the discomfort, the loneliness, the tension, the anxiety. It made me like remember things from my past that I had still hold I had been holding on to. The struggle, the turmoil on the inside, and the boredom. Because I was faced with that, I sat with it a lot. I spent hours and days and weeks and months sitting with that feeling in a way that you know I really wanted to understand why it was there because I I didn't want to suffer anymore. So that was a six-month trip. And I had so many transformative moments, epiphanies that made me realize, wow, that's what I've been doing my whole life, and it's self-destructive. Or wow, that's what that's the pattern that I've been living through. That's how I've been reacting to my anxiety. And basically, my whole life I've been empowering my anxiety rather than understanding it and accepting it. So when I got back, the reason why I felt so different was because I had gone through that experience for six long months. And I felt more, I felt stronger, I felt more capable of not reacting to the anxiety in a negative way, not judging myself immediately, and responding with more curiosity, self-acceptance, and self-love.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

You know, when you were in Africa and experiencing your inner world, right? That like what you're describing, this invitation to actually examine all of these unexamined aspects of you, all of this stuff that you had either stuffed away or hid away or just had not faced yet in your first 22 years? In the excavating process of this, did you see something more than I guess the collection of anxieties or issues? What was revealed there outside of, oh yeah, that thing's been hiding it itself in me? Like, did you see what was beneath all of that? Did that become clear in that six months?

David Procyshyn:

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I guess you see it all. You see the ugliest, you see the beauty, and how I was living with all of that. A lot of anger, a lot of repressed emotion. Like I had spent much of my younger years feeling like I wasn't really understood or heard. I didn't feel like I fit in very well. And so a lot of the feelings that had been repressed over those 22 years, that's what I felt every day. So I know this is cliche, but really the experience was learning how to love myself.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

It's one of those simple and most profound rites of passage that that we can go through. And it it is all of the most simple things in this life, whether it is breathing correctly or understanding how to love ourselves or feeling a feeling, which doesn't sound all that difficult. Oh, just feel it. But it we know it is. We know how difficult it can be to feel something when it's painful to do so or brings up all this other stuff. And so it's all the simplest things in life that can be the hardest to do. But then once we actually get to experience it and learn it and get the benefit from it, then it's like, oh, the floodgates open to that experience. It's like you want more. You want more and more of it, right? You don't want that to end. And I think just the momentum of that makes it an easier road than fighting ourselves.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah. And I think the more that you do that, at least this is my experience, the more you're in that state of mind, the more you can start to witness for yourself what healing is. You know what I mean? It's like there are so many subtle ways of responding or feeling or being in relationship with the things that feel painful. And when you're sitting with the pain and you're being very watchful and you're not trying to fix it. You're not trying to think your way through it, but you're just sticking with the somatic sensation of that experience. That's when you are truly understanding how to heal yourself. And I remember, you know, I continued on that journey because I came back from South Africa and I didn't consider myself healed by any means. I felt I felt I was different. But I still had this chronic anxiety that I still didn't really understand how to not feel it every day. So I explored all of these some of them were quite harsh, some of them were were just simple approaches, but I kept trying to understand why it was there and how I could make it go away because I didn't want it anymore. And I told you earlier that I did I did a meditation treat. I did three silent meditation treats. They were 10 days long meditating for 11 hours a day and you couldn't talk to anybody or do anything else couldn't read a book couldn't listen to music. Like it was just all about being with your feelings and meditating and I remember that sitting with your because all of it was about sensation. You know you start by focusing the mind and then all day you're scanning your body part by part feeling sensation being non-reactive feeling sensation being non-reactive. And I had some of the greatest epiphanies in that experience as well because I would realize that that simple practice of being present and feeling sensation teaches you an enormous amount about the nature of all of the stuff that comes up. It's kind of difficult to describe without being in that experience but it has all of the feelings that you have in your body have a life and they come from a source. They come from memories or they come from trauma there there's something that put it there and so that stuff will come up with it. And being with it without reaction is the greatest way to learn about how to live with the harder stuff in your life.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

As grueling as meditating for 11 hours might sound to some people it also might sound stupidly easy to some people too oh well you just sat there for 11 hours and did nothing that must have been pretty amazing right to get to do nothing all day. So it's always perspective and intention too right we get to live these experiences and go into it with a certain intention and know that in this experience of my time and I'm sure you had incredible guidance during these retreats to be able to witness and be able to be with yourself and be able to let go and zoom out and do everything that you did rather than just be with something at the surface. And I think when people look at maybe an experience like that and go, yeah, well that must have been nice to lay there for 11 hours I would I'd pay you know millions of dollars to be able to do that. Coming from that perspective it's it's an interesting juxtaposition to say yes you know some people need stillness so much that that would seem like the greatest luxury in the world but you're in there in that stillness working really hard in a in a still way so there's so much a paradox going on there. Even us comparing world traveling or you know going on these adventures around the world and foreign cultures to meditation those two things seem vastly opposed so different like sitting in a room silent with yourself or like off on some adventure and a safari and a this and that but it is what you carry through in your intention of going within that's the thread that connects those or it's the fact that those experiences push you within as you may not even intend that but it's like they do that they focus you in because now all the familiarity's gone all of the comforts are gone all of the things maybe that you had relied on to use as crutches or ways to distract yourself from anxiety or addiction or anything are gone. Now we're like left with ourselves and all the stuff that's going on in here. So that is an in interesting to look at those two things as so similar in what they can do and yet they're so different. And I think this is great for listeners to hear because there are so many paths to home and back to ourselves.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah one of the things I've been the most fascinated by in one of my anxiety programs is that I ask people to do nothing for 10 minutes. And I actually describe what I mean by that. I'm like I'm like it doesn't mean that you're like whatever walking around the house and doing nothing. I mean you are you know somewhere by yourself you're undistracted you're still and you're asking yourself very intentionally how do I do nothing? How do I do nothing and I mean actually doing nothing in your entire being like you're not thinking you're not needing to be somewhere else you're you're like feeling all of that. And so for most common responses I get are that I lasted 30 seconds. Like I I cannot do this. I cannot sit still and do nothing. I don't even know what it means. Like what do you mean by that that I do nothing I get bored automatically and I have to move I have to get up and I have to do something. So it is really hard to learn to do it. I remember after about after a few days of sitting for 11 hours a day it took me about three days to finally settle in so that at the beginning of my meditation I didn't feel this enormous pressure and loud voice to go do something. Like get up get up get up go do something you have to move like I would sit down and I would settle and suddenly I could start to feel like wow like I can actually relax and my mind becomes calm and my nervous system becomes calm and I can settle in and I can stay and I don't have to fight to get there so much. I think everybody experiences this I think everybody has a crazy busy mind. And once you start to pay attention it kind of freaks you out because your mind is just in in another place so much of the day. And so it's it's a bit freaky.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Right. And then you're dissociated in your being because your mind can be over there and then your body's over here and your spirits where who knows where if you aren't really connected to it. Yeah we can be so fragmented because our minds are so powerful in that way. And I love that you reframe or to me it seems like a reframing of a way to meditate to just do nothing. Just go and sit and try to do nothing for 10 minutes. Great way to get people into that meditative state and start to learn that start to feel that start to know it's not about not knowing how to meditate or not being good at meditating it's about just getting comfortable in stillness and that's a practice if it's 30 seconds the first time amazing and then you drop down it's only 10 the next time still amazing you're still progressing in the doing of that and in the experiencing of that unfolding in your body and in your life I had a guest on actually probably about a year ago and he and co-author they wrote a book called The Power of Awe. And it all was born out of the retreats that they did because they all began with meditation but 90% of their participants couldn't meditate right we know they can but they said they couldn't so it was like their retreats were so hampered by the fact that people couldn't get into this meditative state. So actually this whole practice which is an acronym of the word was was built out of that and a way to kind of drop in more quickly than it might take someone to uh when they traditionally meditate. So it's super common it's really hard for people we know as people who benefit from meditation how it is like the number one way to connect to self, to source to our inner truth and power to live as a spiritual being on this earth it's got countless benefits. We know this having done it and experienced it but I was also one of those people and it sounds like you were too I was one of those people who used to say I can't meditate. Oh I can't meditate because I'm a busy bee. And until I really wanted to meditate I would make those excuses all the time around why I couldn't so a deep desire to get still was what led me to it. And I know for some people life will just create those moments as well for stillness could come in the form of an accident and then you have to lay around for a while recovering from or a disease that you might be put out, put down for the count. So it's interesting how life always serves up these opportunities or these invitations for us to welcome that in if we want and if we don't then it passes and then another invitation will come another time so when we think of life as these invitations inviting us in to grow or to understand ourselves better or to reconnect to the creator and then therefore our own creative power what have been those invitations for you outside of anxiety because I consider I don't know if you would agree with me that your experience of anxiety was a deep invitation for you to get to know yourself.

David Procyshyn:

Oh absolutely yeah I can look at a number of different invitations in one form or another my introduction to yoga is a great example. I was living in Saskatoon and at the time I had injured my lower back a number of times and my anxiety was getting really bad and I just saw a poster for a yoga class on a hydro pole there was my my invitation it was my first yoga experience and I I got you know a certain amount of relief in that first class and that was that was the first step on the path that I have lived my whole life. Another great example was I found another class in Victoria in a similar way and it was a men's yoga class. It was very focused on breath work like a lot of powerful pranayama and some ancient yogic strength training it was very unique. But I met a who is now my best friend I met a a fellow there and we would after class go for a walk and and talk and I just remember for the first time in my life meeting someone who was genuinely curious about my personal experience and my state of mind and he would ask questions in a way that was clear that he thought about these things a lot in relation to himself. Like for example I had never felt open enough with anyone to be able to describe what I was going through because it was too embarrassing to me and I thought I was the only one. And I didn't I just didn't want to burden people with these thoughts even though I desperately wanted to share them. And he made me feel safe and I would start talking about the tension and the pain and how it's always there and and I remember him asking me have you ever have you ever asked your anxiety why it's there it sounds like ridiculously simple and it actually makes me it brings up emotions right now. It sounds ridiculously simple and why didn't how how could I not do that? So that was my immediate reaction you can do that? Like I can actually do that with my anxiety and so I started doing that and I started bringing more curiosity into my daily life like why do I feel this way now like what role am I playing? That was the biggest one of the biggest steps I ever took what role am I playing in the way that I feel every day and so I become more mindful of that and challenge myself a little bit more. As you said I think you referred you referenced earlier meditation being a great roadblock. I think the second one is not believing that you can actually create positive change for yourself. And I was that's where I was I I was like this is me I'm stuck this is the way I was born this is a mental illness that I was born with I have no way to get out of it. So I did not believe that I could change and so once I started to develop that curiosity and self-compassion that was that was huge for me.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

So huge to meet somebody who could mirror that to you ask you those questions invite the curiosity and it's certainly not a coincidence that you did meet that person to lead you in this way. And I'm sure you've led him in so many ways. And that's such a beautiful thing about life when we do step out of the comfort zones I think we can wither and die and not evolve not change not grow if we stay within that comfort zone so arrestingly that we allow then what whatever it is anxiety depression fear worthiness issues etc to just consume us but if we get curious as you said to see what else is out there we get the breadcrumbs we get all of the the opportunities that are presented to us to go in find the answers seek the solutions discover ourselves and it all just starts to present itself and the each with each step you take. And so for someone like you who had what sounds like you know debilitating anxiety to just take those steps to actually get up and move in a direction admirable and amazing that that you did what you needed to get yourself at least into a situation that was out of that comfort zone. It might be in the fear zone but it's at least out of that and there's a a for you know a progress towards somewhere else and I think that's really important for people to hear who may feel stuck in some aspect of their life it may not be anxiety or some type of mental condition. Maybe it's that they feel stuck in their job or they feel stuck in a relationship or they're stuck in their town or you know I just this doesn't feel like me it's not reflecting my truth and who I am et cetera when we feel stuck the number one thing we can do is move move ourselves move ourselves in some way tiny step here choose something different. It doesn't have to be as extreme as what you did where you just left the continent and went solo to South Africa and I did the same thing I, you know, went and lived for a year in my 20s in New Zealand and because I same thing desperate. I was desperate I didn't want to live anymore I had to do something and I did a big thing. But it doesn't have to be big things they can be little things like go to a class go talk to that person go in a different direction on the way home than you normally do. And there's God there's your life presenting itself in a new way and on that path home it's just so beautiful how all these paths that we've talked about all do essentially lead back to that home.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah and those are all great things I would add to that create connection. Yeah because one of the common stories that I hear from people who are living with chronic anxiety is they don't share with anyone and so of course if you're keeping it to yourself you talk about the invitations I mean when you're when you're open to all possibilities every day of your life you'll have you'll probably get 50 invitations to learn something every day. But if you're not open and you're not you're not in that open frame of mind and willing to actually Talk about how you're feeling, then the opportunities will be limited. So creating connection and I totally get the fear around this. I felt a lot of fear around sharing those deeper emotions and pain in my life too. But you will find there will be some moments that it will fail. You know, you share it with someone, and they they just kind of go on describing what their life is like, and that's okay. But you will find like-minded people. You will find your tribe. Like that will happen. It might be one out of ten, but it is absolutely worth it to go through that process and find those people that you can connect with and rely on and depend on, and vice versa, that you can help with help them. And that's what really what life is all about.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Do you feel like having lived your experience has perfectly set you up to help usher in a relationship with anxiety for so many people now who I feel like more people than ever are suffering from anxiety? More kids, more teens, more people, all across all age groups. It seems like it's on the rise. So is that something that you see as wow, my life just perfectly set me up to be able to help in this time and space we're living in right now?

David Procyshyn:

Yeah, I feel like my life experience kind of did it for me. I had a very visceral experience of anxiety. And then I had, you know, three decades of experimenting with a variety of different approaches, whether it was holotropic breath work or psychedelics or yoga or hot cold therapy or travel. And also I these deeper experiences which taught me so much about how to create a daily relationship with your anxiety. So, yes, I feel like my my life path has basically led me to this moment where I am ready to help people get through their experiences with anxiety. The last 10 years has been um looking into research on anxiety and really understanding how the ancient practices are supported by modern research today. And it's mind-blowing how much they're learning, how much we are learning as a culture. So, yes, that's that is currently my life path.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Well, it's a beautiful path and one that's greatly needed to be walked and to be laid with the gold that you discovered along all of your decades of experimentation. I mean, you collected all of these incredible gifts through that, it sounds like, and to be able to offer those up to those that are suffering now and offer them new ways, maybe a shorter path, maybe uh just a path in general and a way out, a way for them to have that relationship with. I'm excited that we talked about this because I didn't know this side of you. I thought, oh yeah, David does yoga and he's he's a spiritual yogi and we're gonna have a conversation. Uh, I knew that would be interesting, but I didn't know that it would go here. So I'm so happy that it went here. I'm so happy that people have you as a resource to connect to in these times. And um, I know that you said you don't work with kids, but certainly I would imagine parents with children who have anxiety probably also suffer from some anxiety as well. And to be able to connect to not, you know, the one-stop-shop way of dealing with anxiety, which is typically a medication, to be able to actually get into a relationship with it, commune with it, have ritual with it potentially, be able to learn about yourself through it sounds like such a much more enriching way of approaching that.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah, the last article I wrote was about the epidemic nature of anxiety. You know, it discusses what age and what particular groups it's affecting the most and why and how technology is playing a role. So I get it, man. Like our teens, especially right now, are living at a time where it's it is a grand experiment. Having a machine in your pocket, a tiny machine in your pocket that does everything for you, how that's going to impact mental health. And then you you add social media to that. It's yeah, it's it to me, it's it's quite scary, and it's important to continue these healthy conversations with our kids as they go through it.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Yeah, and to not chalk it up as just, oh yeah, everyone has it, and it's I've got one, and I'm not anxious, and you know, to not be so flippant about it. It's a powerful, powerful potential drug. Not a drug for everybody, but it's a powerful one when used or consumed in that way. So absolutely should be, I think, at the top of every conversation for people who have kids or want to bring kids into this world. How can people connect to you and the work that you're doing and get your beautiful magic?

David Procyshyn:

Oh, so the best way is on my website, davidprocession.com. Should I spell my last name? Or will you probably put it in the show notes?

Corissa Saint Laurent:

I'll put that link, yeah, so people don't have to uh stumble around those letters. I'll just put the link right in the show notes.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah. My my Ukrainian last name, it has two Y's in it. So it's not as not a simple spelling. Um, and as you said earlier, I am the founder of Do Yoga With Me, doyogowithme.com. So you can find me there as well. Those are the two main sites. You can find out everything you want or you need to know about me by going to those two links.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Before we leave today, what would be your number one piece of advice or whatever is most on your heart right now to share with somebody as maybe their first step out from under that grip of anxiety, something that they could do or think about or try that you'd want to leave with them today.

David Procyshyn:

Can I say two things?

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Yes.

David Procyshyn:

Okay, so number one, as we said be earlier, the one of the greatest barriers is actually being able to sit and be still and learn how to meditate. One of the greatest ways, especially for someone who's busy and only has 10 minutes a day, to overcome that is to learn what is called rapid breathing techniques. I have a lot of information about rapid breathing techniques and the benefits on my website. And the reason why they're so impactful is that when you start to breathe quickly in a safe way, it can be completely transformative. By transformative, I mean it can make you immediately present of body sensation. So you kind of overcome that period of trying to learn to meditate. I highly recommend that you explore rapid breathing, and there's a lot on our our website too. De Yoga with me has a tutorial section for breathing that shows you how to do a lot of the rapid breathing techniques. I even have pranayama for anxiety classes or tutorials on that on that page. The second thing would be to keep everything as simple as you possibly can. The tendency for someone who is anxious is to overthink. Always overthink things and try to fix it through thinking about things. The best thing you can do is learn how to turn that off and just be present with your body, because that is the gateway to understanding.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Most certainly is, and most certainly is our gateway to being able to know ourselves. And I think that anxiety is trying to tell us something about ourselves, and if we can tune in and listen to that, what a gift.

David Procyshyn:

Yeah.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

What a beautiful thing. Yeah, it is. So I'm excited for people to connect to you and and anybody who is uh suffering or knows somebody who is suffering from anxiety, and maybe you don't even know it's anxiety. Maybe you just think that you overthink and that your mind is a race, just a racing kind of mind, and you're always in a hundred different places. If it feels like you are spinning out of control in that in that situation, or you don't have the tools to bring things back into a still center point, then I know that you connecting with David and the work that he's doing and focused upon is going to be beneficial for you. So dive into those links, connect to those tutorials. David, thank you so much for spending this time with us and sharing all of your beautiful wisdom.

David Procyshyn:

Thank you, Chris. I really enjoyed the conversation. That was great.

Corissa Saint Laurent:

Me too.